Growing human embryonic stem cells

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), the building blocks for all cell types in the human body, may be harnessed for potential applications in cell therapy and regenerative medicine. Currently, hESC culture and expansion methods require the use of serum, mouse or human fibroblast feeder layers, or feeder-conditioned medium. These culture methods are labour intensive and hard to scale, and it is difficult to maintain hESCs in an undifferentiated state because of significant sources of variability such as growth factor fluctuations during culture.

Invitrogen has developed StemPro hESC SFM, which provides a solution to these problems by enabling serum- and feeder-free culture of hESCs. StemPro hESC SFM is prequalified for hESCs and has cGMP-manufactured components that give the quality and consistency needed to optimise hESC cultures.

StemPro hESC SFM has been tested and proven to maintain pluripotency in a growing list of hESC lines including: BG01, BG02, BG03, H1, H9, HUES9, and BG01V.